How to become a scientist

by Aaron A. Warford

The Three Jealous Husbands.

Three jealous husbands, A, B and C, with their wives being ready to pass by night over a river, find at the water-side a boat which can carry but two at a time, and for want of a waterman they are compelled to row themselves over the river at several times. The question is, how those six persons shall pass, two at a time, so that none of the three wives may be found in the company of one or two men, unless her husband be present?

This may be effected in two or three ways; the following may be as good as any: Let A and wife go over—let A return—let B’s and C’s wives go over—A’s wife returns—B and C go over—B and wife return, A and B go over—C’s wife returns, and A’s and B’s wives go over—then C comes back for his wife. Simple as this question may appear, it is found in the works of Alcuin, who flourished a thousand years ago, hundreds of years before the art of printing was invented.

The Arithmetical Mouse-Trap.

One of the best and most simple mouse-traps in use may be constructed as follows: Get a slip of smooth pine, about the eighth of an inch thick, a quarter of an inch broad, and of sufficient length to cut out the following parts of a trap: First, an upright piece, three or four inches high, which must be square at the bottom, and a small piece to be cut off at the top to fit a notch in No. 2.

The second piece must be of the same length as the first, with the notch cut across nearly at the top of it, to fit the top of No. 1, and the other end of it trimmed to catch the notch in No. 3. The third piece should be twice as long as either of the others; a notch, similar to that in No. 2, must be cut in one end of it to catch the lower end of No. 2. Having proceeded thus far, you must put the pieces together, in order to finish it, by adding another notch in No. 3, the exact situation of which you will discover as follows: Place No. 1 upright, then put the notch of No. 2 in the thinned top of No. 1; then get a flat piece of wood, or a slate, one end of which must rest on the ground, and the center of the edge of the other on the top of No. 2. You will now find the thinned end of No. 2 elevated by the weight of the flat piece of wood or slate; then put the thinned end of it in the notch of No. 3, and draw No. 2 down by it, until the whole forms a resemblance of a figure 4; at the exact place where No. 3 touches the upright, cut a notch, which, by catching the end of No. 1, will keep the trap together. You may now bait the end of No. 3 with pieces of cheese; a mouse, by nibbling the bait, will pull down No. 3, the other pieces immediately separate, and the slate or board falls upon the mouse. We have seen numbers of mice, rats and birds caught by this.

HOW TO BECOME A CHEMIST.

In the eleventh century, and during the reign of King Henry the First, surnamed Beauclerk, or the fine scholar, there appeared for the first time in certain books, professing to teach the art of making gold, the words chemistry, chemist, derived from the Greek. Seven hundred years and more have passed away, and that which was only the pursuit of a shadow called alchemy, has resulted in the acquisition of a great and noble science, now and again called chemistry. So it is with the great edifice Chemistry; we may, in these brief pages, peep in at the open door, but should we desire to go beyond the threshold, there are numerous guides, such as Roscoe, Wilson, and Fownes, who will conduct us through the mazes of the interior, and explain in elementary language the beautiful processes which have become so useful to mankind.

Chemistry is one of the most comprehensive of all the sciences, and at the same time one which comes home to us in the most ordinary of our daily avocations. Most of the arts of life are indebted to it for their very existence, and nearly all have been, from time to time, improved by the application of its principles.

Chemistry is, in fact, the science which treats of the composition of all material bodies, and of the means of forming them into new combinations, and reducing them to their ultimate elements, as they are termed; that is, bodies which we are unable to split up, as it were, or separate into other bodies. To take a common substance as an illustration; water, by a great number of processes, can be separated into two other substances, called oxygen and hydrogen, in the proportion by weight of 8 parts of the first to 1 of the second; but no power that we at present possess can separate the oxygen and hydrogen into any other bodies; they are therefore called ultimate elements, or undecomposable bodies.